“There was too much evidence. Had the evidence been weak, they would have scoffed and left him alone. They might have even been willing to let Jesus live to an old age. It was only because the evidence was so strong that Jesus was such a treat to them. They decided to kill both Jesus and the evidence [Lazarus]. Then they would not have to endure the existence of Lazarus, alive, as a challenge to their own authority. What they saw in Jesus was not a revealer of God but only a threat to their power and security.”

Dick Keyes, Seeing Through Cynicism: A Reconsideration of the Power of Suspicion (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2006), 143.